Jeff Bezos says he won't tolerate a 'callous' Amazon workplace - LA Times Jeff Bezos says he won't tolerate a 'callous' Amazon workplace Amazon Jeff Bezos David Ryder / Getty Images Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce website Amazon.com in 1994, and has pushed it to become the world's biggest retailer. Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce website Amazon.com in 1994, and has pushed it to become the world's biggest retailer. (David Ryder / Getty Images) Daina Beth Solomon Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos rebutted a New York Times depiction of his company’s workplace as overly harsh and demanding, writing in a memo on Sunday : “The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know.” The piece, published Friday , described incidents of employees crying at their desks and being dismissed after having children. It painted a picture of a workaholic culture where bosses forced workers into conference calls on Thanksgiving and expected emails to be returned after midnight. More than 100 current and former employees in positions that included engineering and leadership were interviewed for the story, according to the newspaper.

“The joke in the office was that when it came to work/life balance, work came first, life came second, and trying to find the balance came last,” Jason Merkoski, a former employee, told the New York Times. What's it like to work at Amazon ? Depends on who you ask. In a report published Sunday in the New York Times , writers Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld outline a work environment that's hostile and grueling. According to the report, employees at the online retailer are expected to compete with one... What's it like to work at Amazon ? Depends on who you ask. In a report published Sunday in the New York Times , writers Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld outline a work environment that's hostile and grueling. According to the report, employees at the online retailer are expected to compete with one... (Carolyn Kellogg) But some people also said they were eager to meet the demands of a fast-paced environment in the name of innovation. “When you’re shooting for the moon, the nature of the work is really challenging,” said a top Amazon recruiter, Susan Harker.

In an email to his 18,000 employees, Bezos said he would never tolerate the “shockingly callous management practices” described in the New York Times and called on workers to report such incidents to human resources staff or email him directly. “Our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero,” Bezos said in the email, reprinted by the New York Times. “[The article] claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard. Again, I don’t recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don’t, either. ” Amazon Jeff Bezos - LA Times Amazon Jeff Bezos Amazon Jeff Bezos David Ryder / Getty Images Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce website Amazon.com in 1994, and has pushed it to become the world's biggest retailer. Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce website Amazon.com in 1994, and has pushed it to become the world's biggest retailer. (David Ryder / Getty Images) Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce website Amazon.com in 1994, and has pushed it to become the world's biggest retailer.

David Ryder / Getty Images History of E-Commerce History of E-Commerce by Spirecast Team on August 19, 2009 Shopping on the internet is certainly a popular past time, an efficient time-saver, and a great way to comparison shop on virtually any kind of item you’re interested in. The history of e-commerce as most people think of it has a short but interesting time line. Most people don’t realize that e-commerce and its underlying technology have been around for about forty years. We’ve provided a brief history of e-commerce below starting with its conception and rapid development and finishing with a brief description of e-commerce’s advantages and its early pioneers. The Early Years The term e-commerce was originally conceived to describe the process of conducting business transactions electronically using technology from the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer ( EFT ). These technologies, which first appeared in the late 1970’s, allowed for the exchange of information and the execution of electronic transactions between businesses, typically in the form of electronic purchase orders and invoices. EDI and EFT were the enabling technologies that laid the groundwork for what we now know as e-commerce.

The Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computer equipment started in 1982, was one of the first known examples of e-commerce. Throughout the 1980’s, the proliferation of credit cards, ATM machines and telephone banking was the next step in the evolution of electronic commerce. Starting in the early 90’s, e-commerce would also include things such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), data warehousing and data mining. It wasn’t until 1994 that e-commerce (as we know it today) really began to accelerate with the introduction of security protocols and high speed internet connections such as DSL, allowing for much faster connection speeds and faster online transaction capability. Industry “experts” predicted explosive growth in e-commerce related businesses. E-Commerce Begins to Emerge In response to these expert opinions, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in Western Europe and the United States built out their first rudimentary e-commerce websites. The definition of e-commerce began to change in 2000 though, the year of the dot-com collapse when thousands of internet businesses folded.

Despite the epic collapse, many of the worlds’ most established traditional brick-and-mortar businesses were emboldened with the promise of e-commerce and the prospect of serving a global customer base electronically. The very next year, business to business transactions online became one of the largest forms of e-commerce with over $700 billion dollars in sales. Many of the dot-com collapses “first-mover” failures served their offline competitors very well, providing evidence of what not to do in building a viable online business. For example, Webvan , which was one of the more infamous dot-com failures, trail blazed the path for Albertsons and Safeway, two of the largest national supermarket chains, who each have developed their own successful online grocery delivery businesses. E-Commerce Pioneers The birth of companies such as eBay and Amazon (launched in 1994) really began to lead the way in e-commerce. Both eBay and Amazon were among the first to establish prominent e-commerce brands. The most prominent e-commerce categories today are computers, books, office supplies, music, and a variety of electronics. Amazon.com, Inc., founded by Jeff Bezos, was the original e-commerce pioneer and certainly the most recognizable.

In the beginning, Amazon’s business model required massive investment in warehousing, delivery and fulfillment capability and took years for Amazon to gain profitability. But finally in 2003, almost 10 years after launching the company, Amazon.com realized its first annual profit. Amazon began as just an online bookstore but over the years has extended its offering to a wide variety of product categories, including electronics, software, music, DVD’s, CD’s, video games, MP3’s, clothing, shoes, health and beauty products and even household goods. Bezos, was responsible for naming the company “Amazon” after the world’s largest river and it enjoys a truly global presence with stand alone websites in six other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and China. Amazon.com was also the original pioneer in affiliate marketing, allowing other websites to earn sales commissions for referring Amazon products to their customers. Today, Amazon generates anywhere between 30 to 40% of its total sales revenue from affiliates or third party merchants who list and sell their products on Amazon’s web site. Today, the Amazon moniker certainly applies as it is one of the most recognized and most profitable e-commerce businesses on the planet.

In 1999, Jeff Bezos was honored with Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” award, immortalizing him forever as probably the single most recognizable figure in the entire e-commerce community. Amazon and fellow e-commerce industry giant Dell remain two of the largest internet retailers in the world, among other offline industry giants such as Staples, Office Depot, and Hewlett Packard. Dell.com is another one of the most recognizable e-commerce brands online. Dell.com’s website was launched in 1994 with a single static web page and their online presence quickly grew. In 1997, Dell announced a single-day sales record of a million dollars on its website. In fact, roughly half of Dell’s total profits come directly from their website alone. With no offline retail outlets to speak of, Dell is another e-commerce pioneer that many businesses have tried to model themselves after by selling products almost exclusively online. E-Commerce Advantages E-commerce businesses have numerous advantages over offline retail locations and catalog operators. Consumers browsing online stores can easily search to find exactly what they are looking for while shopping and can easily comparison shop with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Even the smallest online retail sites can sell products and turn a profit with a very simple online presence. Web tracking technology allows e-commerce sites to closely track customer preferences and deliver highly individualized marketing to their entire customer base. As the popularity of e-commerce businesses continues to grow, the technology will only continue to improve, making it even easier to open and operate a virtual online store with or without a brick-and-mortar presence. While e-commerce is still relatively new found territory, it certainly offers plenty of opportunity for entrepreneurs of all types. In fact, sales data shows that from1999 until 2008 e-commerce sales have risen steadily and now account for nearly 4% of total sales worldwide. Additional Resources on E-Commerce History: Dude Anthrax September 1, 2009, 5:11 am Great content!

On This Day in History, July 16 On This Day in History Home On This Day On This Day in History, July 16 On This Day in History, July 16 What Happened On This Day – July 16 1995 Amazon.com Sells its First Book The e-commerce website was first founded in 1995 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore. The first book sold by the Internet giant was Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter. 1994 Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collides with Jupiter The Jupiter orbiting comet collided with Jupiter. It was the first time in recorded history that astronomers had observed a collision between two celestial objects. 1981 Mahathir bin Mohamad takes office for the first time Mohmad, took office as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia and remained in the position until 2003, becoming Malayasia's longest serving prime minister and Asia's longest serving politician. 1979 Iraqi president, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns The fourth president of Iraq resigned from his post citing health reasons and promoted his Vice President, Saddam Hussein to the post of President.

1951 The Catcher in the Rye is published The book, written by J.D. Salinger is considered to be one of the top 100 works of fiction of the 20th century. Case: Amazon.com | Flat World Business — 6 Comments Amazon.com, Inc. […] is a US-based multinational e-commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is America’s largest online retailer, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner-up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in January 1994 and launched it online in 1995. The company was originally named Cadabra, Inc., but the name was changed when it was discovered that people sometimes heard the name as “Cadaver”. The name Amazon.com was chosen because the Amazon River is the largest river in the world, and so the name suggests large size, and also in part because it starts with ‘A’ and therefore would show up near the beginning of alphabetical lists.

Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. Amazon has established separate websites all over the world[…], and it also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products. Amazon was founded in 1995, spurred by what Bezos called “regret minimization framework”, his effort to fend off regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush. Company lore says Bezos wrote the business plan while he and his wife drove from New York to Seattle[…]. The company began as an online bookstore;while the largest bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer more. […] Since 2000, Amazon’s logotype is an arrow leading from A to Z, representing customer satisfaction (as it forms a smile); a goal was to have every product in the alphabet. Amazon was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington.

In July 1995, the company began service and sold its first book on amazon.com – In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware. Amazon issued its initial public offering (IPO) of stock on May 15, 1997, […] Amazon’s initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years. Its “slow” growth provoked stockholder complaints that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot.com bubble burst, and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million or 1¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the modest profit was important in demonstrating the business model could be profitable. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year, recognizing the company’s success in popularizing online shopping. How Amazon.Com survived the dot.com bubble? It is the business model! Soon after Amazon.com Inc.

debuted 10 years ago, Jeff Bezos and his handful of employees spent late summer nights packing books in a tiny warehouse, scrambling to ship a growing gush of orders.[…] “I think Amazon’s biggest challenge is itself. They’ve really raised the bar for the entire industry,” said Kurt Peters, editor of Internet Retailer […] .In the beginning, Bezos said he had no plans to sell anything but books online. […] “We actually started to get e-mails from customers saying, `Would you consider selling music, because I’d really like to buy music this way, and DVDs, and electronics?” Bezos said […]. Amazon has nearly 49 million active customers. They bought more electronics during last year’s holiday blitz than books, a first for the company. Because of the company’s straight on customer view on business. 5 critical secrets for Amazons.Com: Work from the customer backward. Focus on value you want to deliver for the customer. Force developers to focus on value delivered to the customer instead of building technology first and then figuring how to use it. Only way to manage as large distributed system is to keep things as simple as possible. Create a frugal culture. Amazon used doors for desks, for example.

Embrace innovation. In front of the whole company, Jeff Bezos would give an old Nike shoe as a “Just do it” award to those who innovated. With $6.92 billion in sales in 2004, Amazon ranked at the top of Internet Retailer’s annual top 400 list, well ahead of computer maker Dell Inc., which posted $3.25 billion in online business-to-consumer sales. Office Depot Inc.,which has a partnership with Amazon, wasn’t far behind with $3.1 billion. […] Amazon’s groundwork paved the way for competitors to follow, but Devitt says he thinks most retailers, especially brick-and-mortar shops, have a lot of catching up to do: “Amazon is always one step ahead.” “[…] More than 900,000 third-party sellers now hawk their wares on Amazon, making up more than a quarter of last year’s overall sales — a sure sign that Amazon is getting serious about taking on eBay. […] Amazon first ventured beyond books when it added music and DVDs in 1998. Electronics, toys, games, home improvement items, software and video games came a year later.

Today it has 31 product categories and does business in seven countries. […] “They’ve developed an extremely loyal customer base, and they’ve cultivated that by continually lowering prices and adding features to their Web site,” said Dan Geiman, an analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle.[…] As the dot-com craze reached fever pitch, it made some bad investments in failures like living.com and pets.com. When the bubble burst in 2000, it scaled back and laid off 1,300 employees. And it took several years to post a profit. The bumps in the road and the lingering volatility of the company’s stock price don’t seem to phase Amazon’s eternally ebullient CEO. “During those bubble years while the stock price was going up 30 percent a month, we would have all-hands meetings, and I would ask employees, `Please do not feel 30 percent smarter because the stock went up 30 percent, because when it goes down 30 percent in a month, we’d have to feel 30 percent dumber,”‘ Bezos said.

[…] The Kindle Story The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader […] which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media. The first Kindle was launched in 2007, when first rumours spread of tablets being the next generation computers. Kindle was Amazon’s answer to the integration of hardware, software and content. The first generation was only sold in the US and sold out in a few months. Because of problems signing up wireless network operators outside the US the Kindle never left the US. The second generation Kindle was launched in 2009 and got an international version. Amazon always kept a sharp pricing for his Kindle, since competition was fierce of Barnes & Nobles Nook. Both Nook and Kindle aren’t full option tablets, and are merely an extension of Amazon’s and Barns & Nobles content offered though the Kindle or Nook – distribution channel. But in 2011 Amazon stept up a notch with the Kindle Fire based on the Android operating system.This set fire to the tablet market initially, but after a closer look this still wasn’t a real threat to the iPad or other tablets.

(Although the Amazon Kindle boosted the Stock price of Amazon, again!) Sources: History of Ecommerce HISTORY OF ECOMMERCE CONTACT US History of Ecommerce One of the most popular activities on the Web is shopping. It has much allure in it — you can shop at your leisure, anytime, and in your pajamas. Literally anyone can have their pages built to display their specific goods and services. History of ecommerce dates back to the invention of the very old notion of "sell and buy", electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that date thousands of businesses have taken up residence at web sites. At first, the term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. The ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s and allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically.

Although the Internet began to advance in popularity among the general public in 1994, it took approximately four years to develop the security protocols (for example, HTTP) and DSL which allowed rapid access and a persistent connection to the Internet. In 2000 a great number of business companies in the United States and Western Europe represented their services in the World Wide Web. At this time the meaning of the word ecommerce was changed. People began to define the term ecommerce as the process of purchasing of available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services. Although the dot-com collapse in 2000 led to unfortunate results and many of ecommerce companies disappeared, the "brick and mortar" retailers recognized the advantages of electronic commerce and began to add such capabilities to their web sites (e.g., after the online grocery store Webvan came to ruin, two supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, began to use ecommerce to enable their customers to buy groceries online). By the end of 2001, the largest form of ecommerce, Business-to-Business (B2B) model, had around $700 billion in transactions.

According to all available data, ecommerce sales continued to grow in the next few years and, by the end of 2007, ecommerce sales accounted for 3.4 percent of total sales. Ecommerce has a great deal of advantages over "brick and mortar" stores and mail order catalogs. Consumers can easily search through a large database of products and services. They can see actual prices, build an order over several days and email it as a "wish list" hoping that someone will pay for their selected goods. Customers can compare prices with a click of the mouse and buy the selected product at best prices. Online vendors, in their turn, also get distinct advantages. The web and its search engines provide a way to be found by customers without expensive advertising campaign. Even small online shops can reach global markets. Web technology also allows to track customer preferences and to deliver individually-tailored marketing. History of ecommerce is unthinkable without Amazon and Ebay which were among the first Internet companies to allow electronic transactions. Thanks to their founders we now have a handsome ecommerce sector and enjoy the buying and selling advantages of the Internet. Currently there are 5 largest and most famous worldwide Internet retailers: Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard.

According to statistics, the most popular categories of products sold in the World Wide Web are music, books, computers, office supplies and other consumer electronics. Amazon.com, Inc. is one of the most famous ecommerce companies and is located in Seattle, Washington (USA). It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and was one of the first American ecommerce companies to sell products over the Internet. After the dot-com collapse Amazon lost its position as a successful business model, however, in 2003 the company made its first annual profit which was the first step to the further development. At the outset Amazon.com was considered as an online bookstore, but in time it extended a variety of goods by adding electronics, software, DVDs, video games, music CDs, MP3s, apparel, footwear, health products, etc. The original name of the company was Cadabra.com, but shortly after it become popular in the Internet Bezos decided to rename his business "Amazon" after the world's most voluminous river. In 1999 Jeff Bezos was entitled as the Person of the Year by Time Magazine in recognition of the company's success.

Although the company's main headquarters is located in the USA, WA, Amazon has set up separate websites in other economically developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and China. The company supports and operates retail web sites for many famous businesses, including Marks & Spencer, Lacoste, the NBA, Bebe Stores, Target, etc. Amazon is one of the first ecommerce businesses to establish an affiliate marketing program, and nowadays the company gets about 40% of its sales from affiliates and third party sellers who list and sell goods on the web site. In 2008 Amazon penetrated into the cinema and is currently sponsoring the film "The Stolen Child" with 20th Century Fox. According to the research conducted in 2008, the domain Amazon.com attracted about 615 million customers every year. The most popular feature of the web site is the review system, i.e. the ability for visitors to submit their reviews and rate any product on a rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon.com is also well-known for its clear and user-friendly advanced search facility which enables visitors to search for keywords in the full text of many books in the database.

One more company which has contributed much to the process of ecommerce development is Dell Inc., an American company located in Texas, which stands third in computer sales within the industry behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer. Launched in 1994 as a static page, Dell.com has made rapid strides, and by the end of 1997 was the first company to record a million dollars in online sales. The company's unique strategy of selling goods over the World Wide Web with no retail outlets and no middlemen has been admired by a lot of customers and imitated by a great number of ecommerce businesses. The key factor of Dell's success is that Dell.com enables customers to choose and to control, i.e. visitors can browse the site and assemble PCs piece by piece choosing each single component based on their budget and requirements. According to statistics, approximately half of the company's profit comes from the web site. In 2007, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 34th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list and 8th on its annual Top 20 list of the most successful and admired companies in the USA in recognition of the company's business model.

History of ecommerce is a history of a new, virtual world which is evolving according to the customer advantage. It is a world which we are all building together brick by brick, laying a secure foundation for the future generations. References The History Of Amazon Home > Learn More > Tech > Tech Page 2 > The History Of Amazon The History Of Amazon Amazon is a Fortune 500 American e-commerce company. It is the largest online electronic retailer in America. Its revenues are triple those of its nearest competitor Staples Inc. Founded in 1994 by Jeffrey Bezos, it’s world headquarters are in Seattle, Washington. Amazon serves a worldwide audience. Its website was launched in 1995 and is available in English, Chinese, French, German and Japanese. These are separate websites but the business model is the same. Amazon websites get around 615 million visitors annually according to a survey by complete.com Amazon began as an online bookstore. This gave it the advantage of having more titles than the traditional brick-and-mortar stores. It has since grown way beyond this to sell all kinds of products. It had a slow growth from its IPO in 1997 sparking complaints from investors.

Following the dot com bubble bust, many internet companies that had experienced dizzying growth went under. Amazon remained and eventually made a $ 5 million profit in the last quarter of 2001. The next year it turned in a profit of $ 3.9 billion. In December 2008 Amazon replaced Merrill Lynch on the S&P 100 after it was taken over by Bank of America. Amazon is credited with popularizing online shopping. For its contribution to the world of ecommerce , Jeffrey Bezos was named Time magazine’s person of the year in 1999. From book selling roots, Amazon has branched into clothing, gourmet food, watches, jewelry, baby products and apparel, beauty products, sporting goods, music CD’s, DVD’s, video tapes, home appliances and electronics and so much more. Its love affair with readables is far from over. One of its products Amazon Shorts launched in 2005 sells short stories and non fiction stories from best selling authors by download. To facilitate seamless shipping of goods bought on its site Amazon Prime was launched. This offers unlimited shipping for a flat rate fee paid annually.

This programme was launched in the US in 2005 and has since expanded to cover Japan, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. Amazon also experimented with online auctioning forging an unsuccessful partnership with Sotheby’s but was unable to break eBay’s stranglehold on this area. However, out of this Amazon launched Amazon Marketplace; a hugely successful service that allows customers to sell used CD’s, books, DVD’s and other products. Amazon marketplace also sells new items. Under the label “Pinzon” Amazon sells a wide variety of house hold goods, footwear, paints, hair accessories and many other products. Amazon has launched an online music store selling music in the MP3 format known as Amazon MP3. This music is downloadable features music from the big four music recording companies EMI, Universal Warner Bros and Sony BMG. AmazonFresh is an online grocery service offering both perishables and non perishable food. The orders are delivered to the customer’s home at dawn or at a specified day time. This service mainly operates in several area codes of Seattle. More recently Amazon has spread its tentacles into film production. In 2008 it funded the production of The Stolen Child in partnership with 20th Century Fox.

The future outlook for Amazon is relatively bright. Hopefully it will maintain its growth as the years pass on. However as is the case with retail companies, harsh economic times will always eat into profit margins . Amazon Startup Story | Fundable Amazon Startup Story Introduction This startup story features Jeffrey P. Bezos, the innovative founder of Amazon. The company, which now generates over $61 Billion in Revenue and holds the title as the world’s largest online retailer, was started out of Bezos’s garage at 30 years old. Amazon Stats: Famous For: Being the world’s largest online retailer How Amazon Got Started The year was 94′ and Bezos was working diligently on Wall Street. At 30 years old, he began to see the internet revolution take place, and made the decision to quit his job and start an internet company. “The wake up call was finding this startling statistic that web usage in the spring of 1994 was growing at 2,300 percent a year. You know, things just don’t grow that fast.

It’s highly unusual, and that started me about thinking, “What kind of business plan might make sense in the context of that growth?” After making a list of the ‘top 20′ products that he could potentially sell on the internet, he decided on books because of their low cost and universal demand. It turns out, it was just the beginning….. The Founder’s Start As a child, he spent summers at his grandfather’s ranch in southern Texas, “laying pipe, vaccinating cattle and fixing windmills”. The 18-year-old Bezos “said he wanted to build space hotels, amusement parks and colonies for 2 million or 3 million people who would be in orbit. ‘The whole idea is to preserve the earth’ he told the newspaper …. The goal was to be able to evacuate humans. The planet would become a park”. Amazon’s Funding The initial startup capital came from his parent’s personal savings. From an interview with Jeff Bezos, for the Academy of Achievement : “The first initial start-up capital for Amazon.com came primarily from my parents, and they invested a large fraction of their life savings in what became Amazon.com.

And you know, that was a very bold and trusting thing for them to do because they didn’t know. My dad’s first question was, “What’s the Internet?” Okay. So he wasn’t making a bet on this company or this concept. He was making a bet on his son, as was my mother. So, I told them that I thought there was a 70 percent chance that they would lose their whole investment, which was a few hundred thousand dollars, and they did it anyway.” Follow on Funding Amazon raised a series A of $8M from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1995. In 1997, Amazon went public to raise additional capital. By 1999, the value of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers investment in Amazon created returns of over 55,000%. Years to profitability Within two months, Amazon’s sales were up to $20,000/week. However, the company has continued to plow their revenue back into growth. The chart below depicts Amazon’s continued focus on long-term growth, with profit remaining near $0 or below, and revenue rising.

Important Amazon Milestones: 1994: Jeff Bezos quits his job and launches Amazon out of his garage. Within 30 Days, it is doing $20,000 per week in sales. 1995: Bezos raises an $8 Million round of funding from Kleiner Perkins. 1997: Amazon goes public at $18 per share. 1999: Bezos is named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for popularizing online shopping. 2009: Bezos acquires Tony Tsieh’s Zappos through a stock swap. 2013: Bezos acquires the Washington Post. Companies Amazon Has Acquired: Amazon has made over 44 notable company acquisitions over the years. It’s first Acquisition was in 1998. 1998: PlanetAll, Junglee, Bookpages.co.uk (later became Amazon UK). 1999: Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Alexa, Accept.com, and Exchange.com 2003: CDNow (Defunct) 2004: Joyo.com, an e-commerce site in China.

2005: BookSurge, Mobipocket.com, and CreateSpace.com. 2006: Shopbop, a women’s luxury retailer. 2007: DPReview.com and Brilliance Audio. 2008: Audible.com, Fabric.com, Box Office Mojo, AbeBooks, Shelfari, and Reflexive Entertainment. 2009: Zappos, Lexcycle, SnapTell, Stanza (Kindle Rival). 2010: Touchco., Woot, Quidsi, BuyVIP, and Amie Street. 2010: Toby Press 2011: LoveFilm, The Book Depository, Pushbutton, and Yap 2012: Kiva Systems, Teachstreet, and Evi 2013: IVONA Software, GoodReads, and Liquavista Jeff Bezos Startup Advice “We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details…. We don’t give up on things easily. Our third-party seller business is an example of that. It took us three tries to get the third-party seller business to work. We didn’t give up.” “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon.

And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.” Top 10 Best Technology Companies in the World - List of Tech Companies Top 10 Best Technology Companies in the World Top 10 Best Technology Companies in the World By Tweet on Twitter With technology making vast strides, life has become all the more comfortable. There are thousands technology companies than across several continents which created employment opportunities with the demand of products form them. Their equipment is world renowned and respected for quality and their heavy price tags. In this list we check out ten biggies of the technology world who have carved a niche for themselves. 10. Amazon.com At no. 10 on the list we have the famous Amazon.com. This company has made waves since it was founded in 1994 and has never looked back since. Based in Seattle, this e-commerce website was founded by Jeff Bezos who is also the current Chairman and CEO of the company. Amazon.com has near 70,00 employees under its roof and manages a neat 48.07 billion UD dollars every year.

Needless to say, the company is a huge success and has a loyal customer base. 9. Cisco Since its inception in 1984, Cisco Systems Inc. has managed to create a name for itself. One of the best companies that mainly deals with detailed design and production of networking equipment, Cisco has66,639 employees working for them. The HQ of the company is in San Jose, California. This company was the idea of two people of the names Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack. The annual turnover of Cisco Systems touches 46 billion US dollars easily. 8. Qualcomm Qualcomm is a technology giant that mainly manufactures semi-conductor products used in wireless communication. The company was founded in the 1985 with its head quarters located in San Diego, California. Started by Andrew Viterbi and Irwin Jacobs, this company does a lot of business throughout the year – 19.2 million US dollars to be precise. Currently there are 21,200 employees under the Qualcomm banner.business of 19.12 million US dollars. In total there are 21,200 employees working for Qualcomm Incorporated. Top 10 Best Indian Mobile Phone Brands 7.

Samsung Ranked at number 7, we have the Samsung Group; a company known for leading the rat race with its technology business all over the world. Based in Seoul, South Korea, Samsung is being lead by MR. Lee Kun Hee who is also their CEO. These giants of technology deal with several dozens of items and are without a doubt one of the very best. With the coming of this company in early 1938, the struggle has always been to get to the top. Samsung has over 369,000 employees working under them in all parts of the world. They do annual business of 247.5 billion US dollars without fail. 6. Intel Intel Corp is no.6 on this list. Started by two people names Robert Noyce and Gordon Morre in 1968,Intel Corporation has been a world leader in manufacturing high quality semiconductor chips. Many Gen x computers are powered by the Intel Corporation. The head-quarters is located in Santa Clara, United States. The company is headed by their chairman, Andy Bryant. As of now, the work force of Intel has over 100,000 employees and still continues to go strong.

Each year, this company manages to do an astounding 54 billion US dollars business. 5. Oracle The Oracle Corporation which spear heads the hardware making aspects as well the software development aspects for computers is ranked number 5 on our list. Primarily with its focus on database management systems, this company has made a lot of progress since it came into being in 1977. The company was founded by Ed Oates, Larry Ellison and Bob Miner. Oracle is based in California and does a healthy business of 37.1 billion US dollars which is quite frankly a lot more than healthy. Currently the chairman , Jeff Henley heads the company’s workforce of 115,116 employees all over the globe. How to install Windows 8 4. Google A leader in all respects of technology, Google Inc. – a trooper in the internet world, sits pretty high up on our list. Initially what was a small start up under two friends; Larry Page and Sergey Bin; who were students in Stanford University at the time has become a force to reckon with. Located in California, the company manages a revenue of 37.905 billion dollars every year.

More than 50,000 employees work constantly to keep the company going and attain more success. A global leader indeed! 3. Microsoft Microsoft Corp. is next on our list; founded by Bill gates in 1975 and his close friend Paul Allen this company took the world by storm with its innovative developments in the software domain. All major software used near and far come up under this banner .Microsoft Corporation under Bill Gates has touched the skies and continues to ride a wave of success The company generates an annual revenue of 73,72 billion US dollars mainly through Google Ad Sense. With its headquarters in Washington, the working employees under Bill Gates are roughly about 95,000 and that number is still steadily increasing by the day. 2. IBM The International Business Machines Corporation better known as IBM is one tech corp. which deserves a place in our list. IBM was initiated under Charles Ranlet in 1911 in New York. As of today, this company is the pioneer producer of hardware for computers and soft wares as well. It has even stepped into the consulting business too. Mr.

Ginni Rometty currently presides over the company whose annual turnover is a staggering 106.91 billion UD dollars. Over 433.362 employees sweat it out from dawn till dusk to keep the company going. How to Write a Solid Business Plan 1. Apple A company that we all adore and look up to named Apple Inc. takes up the number one spot on our list. This giant of giants is without a doubt the best technology company in the world. Dealing with production of computer and other electronic items this company is the world leader for the last two decades. The company was founded initially by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976 as Apple Computers and was later renamed to Apple Inc. It main office is situated in California, USA. With more than72,800 employees working the company each year it makes business worth 156.508 billion US dollars. TAGS

Question: Which e-commerce website was founded by Jeffrey Bezos in 1994?
Answer: AMAZON